


Defeat in Victory

by softly_speaking_valkyrie



Series: Love Across the Stars [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Killing, Kissing, Lesbians, Lots of Angst, Love, Love Confession, Murder, Order 66, Post-Order 66, Post-Victory and Death, Romance, Some Fluff, Victory and Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:46:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24118225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softly_speaking_valkyrie/pseuds/softly_speaking_valkyrie
Summary: Following the declaration of Order 66, Ahsoka and Rex leave the unidentified moon in the 501st Y-Wing to head back to Coruscant to make sense of what has happened in the galaxy. Ahsoka's behest and plan leads them back to level 1313 in the lower sections of Coruscant and to the arms of Trace and Rafa Martez once more as something sinister grips the capital and the Republic is reorganised into the first Galactic Empire. As Ahsoka recuperates after the battle aboard her Venator, Rex finds his way to 79's and encounters Commander Appo, the clone that led the 501st in their raid on the Jedi Temple...
Relationships: Trace Martez/Ahsoka Tano
Series: Love Across the Stars [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1756282
Comments: 10
Kudos: 44





	Defeat in Victory

**Author's Note:**

> Keeping things short and sweet, I recommend listening to some of the more angsty music from the Episode III Soundtrack as well as Leia's Theme from Episode IV at the very end. 
> 
> If anyone becomes confused, Rex and Ahsoka arrive at Coruscant the day that Obi-Wan and Yoda fight their way back into the Jedi Temple when Anakin kills the Separatists on Mustafar and Palpatine creates the Empire, otherwise known as Empire Day...

_I know you don’t want to hear this, but they don’t care..._

_Execute Order Sixty-Six..._

“I don’t want to hear it. Not another word,” Rex demanded, tossing the backpack into the cockpit of the Y-Wing and holding steadfast against the lip of the ladder. His brain was fried, his emotions shot to hell and with no prospects of coming back. Looking to the wreckage before him and his friend, it took absolutely everything he had left within him not to cry.

The words kept on repeating purposefully in his mind – he kept repeating them with his mental voice so he wouldn’t forget them no matter what happened after this. He was a good soldier.

“Rex...” Ahsoka sighed, unable to contain her own emotions. She as doing a good job of it so far, even given what could only be described as a mass grave, without any bodies – no, they were under and within the hulking wreck of the Venator, Ahsoka and Rex her only survivors, Maul gone to parts unknown.

She walked to him, the former Clone Commander unable to step up the Y-Wing’s small ladder to the cockpit. What she was asking of him, of both them, now was simply impossible and possibly certain to get her killed. Not him, he didn’t matter and not only that but Rex could walk away unscathed in all this – he was still a Clone and after what had happened, what was still happening all over the galaxy (he didn’t need to ask anyone, nor did he know if she could feel it, but Rex knew in his heart that it was happening as they waited) he could return to the Grand Army of the Republic and witness no doubt the end of the war as the rest of his brothers would. But to know about what she wanted to do next, where she wanted to go, it was impossible for him to think of a crazier notion. Orange-skinned fingers wrapped around his wrist and forearm as he held himself onto the ladder’s rungs. He couldn’t look at her yet knowing she was looking directly at his withered and broken-down face; it had been barely an hour since they’d crashed, slightly more so since he’d dropped his helmet to the ground with his hands shaking and tears flooding his face before the strain of the words in his mind. ‘Execute Order Sixty-Six.’ And now Ahsoka wanted to go to Coruscant, to her death, after he and both of them had done so much to save her from the onslaught of her own company. The Tano Division of the 501st Legion was dead; Rex couldn’t live with himself if he let her join them.

“We have to go,” Ahsoka whispered to him, forcing a knee-jerk reaction from the broken clone that made his limps turn to jelly and his nose seize up with uncontrollable fervour.

Rex slammed his eyelids shut, not wanting to see Ahsoka’s beautiful and friendly face ever again if it meant he’d have to agree (which he knew he would eventually) and watch her go. He didn’t think he could ever simply feel so much in one moment for being a soldier – all the grief, all the shame, all the triumph the war had built up within him had washed away with a cascading wave of pure dread and white-hot anger that it made his blood boil and his eyes explode or want to within him. Under the black guise of his closed eyes, he could see them all wiped clean by the hooded spectre of Darth Sidious.

Ahsoka, Jesse, Fives, Echo, Hunter, Tup, Ninety-Nine, all of them looked to be dissolving into body bags the wetter his non-vision became. And then the faces of Jedi all rolled with them as Sidious’s words repeated on some torturous loop – Mundi, Luminara, Secura, Fisto, even Master Kenobi. Commander Rex couldn’t bare think of the impossible, of the feeling that wanted to rip him apart more than the thought of losing Ahsoka to his brothers. What if they’d already killed Anakin?

“Don’t make me go back, Ahsoka... I can’t do it, I’m... I’m not strong enough,” Rex whispered to her, as he felt the familiar and loving coolness of her fingers wrap around his sturdy jaw and cheekbones.

It was as she had held him in the hangar control room before they’d made their escape, when Jesse commanded so many of his brothers into the hangar in an insidious file and rank formation - an execution squad for his friend. He was sobbing then, as he’d sobbed on the bridge in front of her (he’d done so much crying today Rex wondered if it would ever have a chance to stop) and now he was most certainly sobbing behind the close of his eyes. He didn’t care if she saw him like this, they were both banged up and in something of the worst states they had been in during the conflict. But this was different. He couldn’t muster the strength to open his eyes this time, not when she would be on the other side of them with the prospect of not some time afterwards.

She was about to speak before he cut her off, holding her slender and yet strong wrists with his own trembling hands. “I’m not strong enough, Ahsoka... I’m not strong enough.”

“I can’t do it alone, Rex... I need to go to Coruscant and find Anakin. I need to go to the Temple,” she told him again and the words felt like knives shooting up and down his spine, immobilising and crippling him.

“W... Why?” He choked, his words fluttering with how weak they were to say. His body failed him, letting him down to his knees before her, but she fell with him and held his head still. “If you go back to Coruscant, you’ll die, Ahsoka.” He was crying a lot more now, more so than his sobs hours before with his hands shaking before her in the communications cluster aboard the now dead Venator. Looking passed her, off to the distance and at the graveyard of all of his and her former subordinate troopers (Jesse’s helmet at the vanguard looking like some sort of decrepit and sinister omen; the Republic had died) he could only see this graveyard as the place she’d return to, no breath left in her breast. But then he looked at her, beautiful Ahsoka, still a kid in his eyes and he saw something in her luminous eyes. He saw a plan. She was not going to Coruscant to die at the hands of this malicious Lord Sidious, now proclaiming himself an Emperor of a first Galactic Empire – there was such defiance in her eyes as Rex had never seen in his relatively short life. In her eyes, he saw Anakin Skywalker’s strength, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s cunning and Bo-Katarn Kryze’s will. Ahsoka looked immovable, non-killable, a righteous infliction of retribution. She wanted to go to Coruscant in an attempt to survive, having nowhere else and survive she would.

They loaded up in the BTL-B Y-Wing and Rex sighed, now taking the seat in the gunner’s station while Ahsoka helmed the slow bomber in the primary cockpit. It was just right, she had earned her wings off of the back of the best star-pilot in the galaxy but Rex couldn’t hold his resolve together – his shoulders tenses and seized up as he heard the throttle perk up and the primary motivators come to life like waking birds. As a banshee, Ahsoka took up the Y-Wing and split the seams of the atmosphere until once again they saw the stars. Now, the space above their unidentified moon was clear as all the debris of the Venator had fallen to the surface. Rex had never felt so apprehensive seeing the open vastness of space and knowing that the capital was on the other end of the trip.

“Do you want to clue me in on the plan?” Rex asked through the intercom to the cockpit.

He saw Ahsoka’s head bow, her small but still prolific montrals lowering with an audible sigh of something related to dread. The gravity of what was happening still had not hit either of them – Rex felt numb to what he knew was transpiring, and Ahsoka looked clueless as if purposefully cut off from it. Did she not feel it? Rex thought Jedi could feel things across space; something like this, like Order Sixty-Six, must have been burrowing its way into her senses, eating away at her.

“Ahsoka, where on Coruscant _are_ we going?” Rex asked more inquisitively than before and with a harsher tone to his grizzled voice.

“We’ll have to lay low,” Ahsoka told him. “If Lord Sidious knows what’s happened here he’ll be on high alert in the capital. I have a friend on Coruscant who’ll take us in until we can get a sense of what’s going on.”

She was making a lot of extrapolations faster than Rex could keep up; without the chip inside of his head, pulling him into a murderous sleep against his inhibitions, he was struggling to keep up. “How do you know that Sidious is on Coruscant at all, Ahsoka?” Rex asked intensely.

“My friend is set up in level Thirteen-Thirteen, she’ll take us in, and Rex just don’t worry. I think I have an idea who Darth Sidious is...”

* * *

The blue dream-like vortex of hyperspace slowed to a crawl before reverting back to slugging starlines and then the stationary bright dots themselves. Ahead of the starry backdrop of space at large was the capital, now looking like a dark omen as they caught the night side. Coruscant had never looked so ominous. Ahsoka shivered at the side of it, especially at what appeared to be a blockade of _Venator_ -class heavy cruisers around the equator; whereas once they would scream a breath of safety and home at her, now she saw the enemy and nothing but men who wanted to kill her.

“Did you unplug the transponder?” Ahsoka asked into the gunner’s canopy. Rex retorted with an affirmative, although glumly. “What about the IFF module?” Again Rex hummed that he had and Ahsoka’s body began to shake rather than relax. With what she’d had Rex pull out of the Y-Wing and perhaps some luck (which of course she didn’t believe in) they might make it to the surface undetected by the Republic warships and make it to level Thirteen-Thirteen. Still, she prayed for their safe passage. “I’m one with the Force, the Force is with me...” she whispered, but still enough for Rex to hear her in the gunner’s station.

“I’m one with the Force and the Force is with me...”

Ahsoka slowed the Y-Wing to cruising speed, making a break for the surface and to the outskirts of Coronet City, close to all the landmarks but a significant distance away and to the traffic shaft that would lead down to the lower levels. The hulking body of the closest Venator loomed over them, blocking out the view from both cockpits as they travelled under the belly of the beast. Ahsoka was almost ready to burst from the tension, but nothing on her instruments made a sound or a flicker. Her brain was ticking overtime ( _please don’t stop us, please don’t stop us, please don’t stop us_ ) as the patriotic colours of Republic white and mauve took a hole of her view. Even through the vacuum of the black, she could feel as if she could hear the creaking of a warship’s hull in her ears and through the bulkheads and shields of the cruiser, she sensed the plethora of clones, all of them now tasked with murdering her.

The tension rested in both of their bodies until their Y-Wing drifted under the twin-engine thrusters and the mass of the cruiser was gone and behind them. Coruscant now took up all of the cockpit’s vision and Ahsoka began to edit her dashboard to compensate for re-entry into the dark capital. On her console, she saw the landing ports of Coronet City, the Senate, the Senator’s Dome, and the Temple... However, when the Y-Wing broke through the cloud layer minutes later and the entire main city came into view ahead of her, Ahsoka saw something totally different from what she imagined.

“Ahsoka... I’m so sorry, kid,” she heard Rex murmur into the intercom between their cockpits. From the Jedi Temple, all Ahsoka could see was smoke, pluming high into the air and scattered flames around its hallowed base – it looked worse than a battlefield.

She wanted to cry, wanted to flip the Y-Wing into attacking speed and making a bombing run at the clones no doubt now guarding its ruin. She wanted to get inside and kill them all, destroy what they’d done to her previous home; there could still be Jedi fighting for survival within, still be putting up rebellion against the onslaught of the clones sent to kill them. Her friends, her family... She prayed that Anakin and Obi-Wan were not among those fallen inside of the ruined Temple.

With all fury and every fibre of her being she wanted to divert from her plan and go to fight within the Temple, but her conviction compelled her to stay the course, and she turned to Y-Wing away from the centre of the city and to the traffic shaft on the outskirts. “He’s not in there, Ahsoka...” Rex consoled her. “Anakin’s not in there... No way...”

She searched her feelings, propelling her mind all over the galaxy trying to find some sense of him – when she did, she didn’t know where he was, but Anakin was not in the Temple, and he was very much alive, somewhere she couldn’t sense and didn’t know. “I know Rex, I know...”

Apart from the Temple, Coronet City looked absolutely no different from normal – traffic spewed all over the city in their normal traffic lanes and the Republic shipyards were still at their normal level of manic. If Ahsoka had not seen the Venator blockade or the burning Jedi Temple, she would wonder if anything was happening at all in the galaxy. The level shaft was not hard to find; Ahsoka manoeuvred the Y-Wing between the cruisers and the frigate-class civilian transports coming up from the lower levels into the open day-time air of the main city. CROC cruisers and _Gozanti_ -class transports proved for ample obstacles to thread the small bomber between and around until Ahsoka saw the landing platform she wanted and the giant numbers painted above the hangar she’d been at what seemed like a year ago – Thirteen-Thirteen. The blast doors were open and inside Ahsoka could see the bow and the cockpit of a _Nebula_ -class freighter nestled snugly inside the workshop. It looked exactly as she had left it a couple of months ago.

“What is that piece of junk?” Rex asked, seeing the ship as Ahsoka spun up the landing cycle manually (what with the lack of an astromech droid in its designated slot) and primed the landing gear.

“That's the _Silver Angel_ , the property of one Trace Martez and her sister Rafa. They’ll take us in while we form a new plan,” Ahsoka told her friend, setting the ship down on the landing platform. They piled out together, leaving the Y-Wing all too quickly as if it were a relic; Rex took out both of his blaster pistols and maintained their settings to stun as he saw the empty interior of the vacant workshop as eerie and saw flashes of Fives and his demise in the back of his mind. He didn’t want to go out like that, not now – and moreover if it was a trap, something engineered by clones who had detected them above. He didn’t know how they would know he and Ahsoka were together and on Coruscant but nothing would surprise the intrepid commander anymore – although now he realised he was not much of a commander anymore.

They both moved into the workshop, Ahsoka laxer and easy-going than Rex (who was more than on edge) to no one dwelling within. Peeling back the screen before the workbench, Ahsoka found a familiar sight – an old and chopper-style speeder bike, the one that Ahsoka had hired with the only handful of credits she had after leaving the Temple and crashed directly in front of Trace soon after her expulsion from the Jedi Order. It was in perfect condition, fully fixed up and even given some polish so the metal cylinders and pistons of the firing chamber were spotless and shone under the lights above the workbench. But there was no Trace Martez or Rafa; Ahsoka felt a chill down her spine.

Near the back of the workshop there came a distinct metal tang, a clanging of machinery and the sudden trudge of footsteps on the metal panel flooring. Ahsoka reached to the bench and grabbed a wrench as a weapon in place of her lightsabers. Rex took point with his pistols out and eyes keen and entrenched in a combat scenario. “Be careful, Rex,” Ahsoka begged him as they split up a bit and passed through the screen again.

Rex moved to the aft of the _Silver Angel_ while Ahsoka moved underneath the middle and into the work trench of the workshop, laying low and keeping her profile obscured. She could see feet ahead of her, moving to the aft where Rex was looking but to tell him would be to give her position away. She moved quickly, down the trench to the thrusters as Rex rounded them and she heard the priming of his blasters.

“Freeze! Stay right where you are!” Rex roared out at the intruder.

“Take your best shot, Clone boy; I’ll be taking you with me!” The familiar exotic and slightly erotic voice of Rafa Martez riddled back. Ahsoka’s face popped before she darted out of the work trench and got between Rex and Rafa, the latter holding a hold blaster at the former Clone Commander.

“Rex! Don’t shoot! It’s Rafa!” She pleaded with her friend.

“Ahsoka?” Rafa asked, looking at the Togruta as she turned to face the older of the Martez sisters. Rex lowered his blasters when he noted that the pair knew each other, and saw pained happiness within Ahsoka’s face.

“Rafa...” Ahsoka sighed, happy to see even the older sister (last time they were together, Rafa was less accommodating of Ahsoka around her sister). “Where’s Trace?”

“Ahsoka!” Trace’s voice came from around the hull of the _Silver Angel_. A huge weight lifted from Ahsoka’s heavy heart as soon as she saw the tanned skin and plume of beautiful chocolate hair of her friend. Trace raced towards her, pushing past the fur-coated side of her older sister; both Rafa and Rex were quiet as the women got to each other and held the other in her arms. Rafa looked visibly older, the months telling on the sternness of her ever-vigilant face but Trace looked exactly how she had the last time Ahsoka had seen her. When they parted after the warm and loving hug, Ahsoka caught herself, wanting to lean forward and meet Trace’s lips with her own as she had so many times when they worked on the _Silver Angel_ together, but stopped herself in front of Rafa and Rex. Seeing the woman had brought her out of the real world and propelled her into the past, but when she looked at the plaster on Rex’s temple and the hole in his shoulderguard she remembered why they were here.

Still, she held Trace’s hands in her own and refused to let go as Rafa came closer. “Ahsoka... Why did you bring a clone here?” Rafa asked her, lowering her own holdout blaster and referring to Rex.

“Forget that, Rafa!” Trace ordered her sister. “How are you still _alive_ , Ahsoka? We heard about the Jedi Temple... The clones are killing all of the Jedi Knights? What’s even happening?”

Ahsoka wanted to start explaining, especially when Rafa held her sister’s shoulder as if to pull her away from her, but the words would not come. Everything failed her and she didn’t know how to even start; not only that but she truly didn’t know either; she didn’t know what was happening. It was Rex who began, setting his blasters on top of a wheeled trolley of parts and tools. “Order Sixty-Six has been declared...” He began.

“What the heck is Order Sixty-Six?” Rafa asked, waving her blaster – she had no intention of holstering it into the snug clutch around her upper thigh (she looked significantly more like a dastardly roguish smuggler now)

“A directive implanted in every single clone soldier while they’re a baby in the machines on Kamino. We were implanted with inhibitor chips to make us more susceptible to taking orders from our commanders, that’s why we followed the Jedi Generals all this time without questioning their plans. An ARC Trooper... Fives, my friend, uncovered that we were all implanted before he was killed, and he knew what they were doing to us... Deep within the code, covered up by the Kaminoans and someone else, Lord Sidious, we were implanted with a single task. Order Sixty-Six instructs all clones that Lord Sidious is their real master, their commander and that all Jedi Knights are to be executed on charges of treason against the Republic, and that any clone that aids any Jedi is also to be executed on charges of treason,” he told all of them, his eyes heavy and baggy with darkness underneath. His chest was heaving, ragged, but Ahsoka didn’t blame him. Inside of his eyes, Ahsoka saw a need coming into view. “I have to go... I have to find Appo. Ahsoka...” Rex pleaded as she looked all the more vulnerable. Trace was suddenly holding a lot more of her now, her arms around her shoulders hugging her once more.

“Take my bike, Rex. Find out what’s happened...”

* * *

With Rex gone, Trace wouldn’t leave Ahsoka. Rafa protested, showing her explosive opinions but not once blamed or victimised Ahsoka for what had happened or was happening. Without her clone rock, Ahsoka finally let her body fail her, falling into one of the hammocks with Trace holding her and letting the galaxy float away from her. She wanted nothing more than to be drowned out by the workshop and Trace around her – if life held nothing more for her but living in the underbelly of corrupted Coruscant and the Martez sisters, Ahsoka would die a happy woman.

Trace knew better than to ask her about it, how she had been in the past few months, where she had been when this devilish Order Sixty-Six had been declared and how she and Rex had survived it. She knew her sister would want those answers in time, and she would most probably get them but for the meanwhile, Rafa knew as well as Trace to leave Ahsoka well alone and let her rest and be happy. She was stirring a couple of hours later, the workshop as quiet as a tomb and Rafa minding her own business trying to get a wireless to work on the workbench. Seeing Trace’s face when she woke made Ahsoka feel like she was still asleep, she didn’t believe that less than half a day after fighting for her life against her closest friends she would be waking in the arms of someone she cared greatly for. “Am I dreaming?” She found herself whispering, not intentioned for Trace’s ears. But Trace perked up, her distinctly red lips curling into a flattered smile along with the light beauty mark on her left cheekbone. Her mocha eyes swirled in greasy beauty and she graced her fingers along the curve and tip of one of Ahsoka’s montrals.

“Where did you get that headband?” Trace asked, fingering the crest of it around where the montrals met the orange of Ahsoka’s beautiful face.

“Lady Bo-Katarn,” Ahsoka sniggered. “She made sure I would fit in on Mandalore...”

“Wow,” Trace giggled back, catching her breath. “A former Jedi, a war hero, making moves on Mandalore of all places,” she beamed like an impressed child hearing the most entertaining of stories. “Ahsoka Tano you _do_ lead an incredible life...” She semi-teased her, becoming sentimental. But Ahsoka loved it; it made her heart flutter and her body relax into Trace’s arms; Rafa down below tinkering away at the wireless and getting it to work. Eventually, it started speaking to her and Ahsoka could hear yet another familiar voice.

In place of Ahsoka’s warmth and the love she received from Trace’s hold on her and attentiveness came a gross perversion of old familiarity and a sense of pure dread that made her blood boil. Her suspicions and feelings were confirmed when she heard the decayed and withered voice of who she knew to be the Supreme Chancellor. His voice had been altered in some way, even over the static and waves of the wireless – there was something deeply different; his voice was dark, old and evil where once it had been guiding and consoling. This was not the voice of Chancellor Palpatine, now it was the true expression of the man who was orchestrated and ordered the death of the Jedi – Darth Sidious.

“What’s going on, Rafa?” Trace asked her from up on high as Ahsoka fully stirred and sat up. Rafa didn’t want to respond, to tell the truth as it was. “Rafa?” But still, she didn’t answer as Trace asked her again.

“Rafa,” Ahsoka spoke, close to the edge of the hammock. “What’s he saying?”

“The Chancellor is elaborating on a plot by the Jedi, to overthrow the Senate...” Rafa explained in a grave sigh and looked to her feet as the voice of the withered Chancellor droned on the intermittent sounds of thunderous applause.

“That’s not true!” Trace roared, Ahsoka holding her wrist possessively as if to try and calm her down so she could hear the rest. Trace hushed up and the three of them sat looking at the floor as the Chancellor addressed both the Senate and the entire Republic. The broadcast was blasted on all civilian wavelengths, all frequencies and all channels.

Listening to the lecture was like listening to the death toll of a bell; the final nail in the coffin of the Jedi as the Chancellor removed any good grace the Order had once had from the hearts and minds of the public. He was like a pied piper and Ahsoka’s heart broke all over again as she listened. “The remaining Jedi will be hunted down and defeated! Any collaborators will suffer the same fate... These have been trying times, but we have passed the test!” Even Trace’s face turned to the most explosive of anger, and as Ahsoka looked, she could tell that Rafa was furious at it too. Despite what had happened to both of them, they didn’t believe it because of Ahsoka – the grip Trace had on her hand with both of her own tightened, wanting comfort. Ahsoka let her walls down as she listened to Maul’s visions coming true. This was it, the Republic was dying as the Jedi had. She reached for Trace and held her close to her body, filling her with the warmth of her love – completely letting go and giving in just a little to the emotions she had always been told were folly, Ahsoka leaned over the side of Trace’s head and kissed her gently.

“The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed... But I assure you that my resolve has never been stronger! The war is over! The Separatists have been defeated! And the Jedi Rebellion has been foiled! We stand on the threshold of a new beginning!” Sidious screamed to a full Senate and the response of another massive applause.

Rafa could sense something incredible, something sinister on the tip of his tongue. When she and Ahsoka had first met, impressions were not good and judgements were made on both parts but now, when they locked eyes as Ahsoka cuddled with Trace, they understood each other and Ahsoka could see just how smart Rafa Martez truly was. “I know what he’s gonna say next...” Rafa told the former Jedi.

“In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganised into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society!”

Trace trembled in Ahsoka’s arms and held her closer as they both feared what else would come from the Chancellor’s mouth. In place of his lecture, even more incredible applause overtook the airwaves and drowned out all else coming from the wireless grill. Rafa slammed her fists on the workbench, forcing Ahsoka to look at the older Martez again, and still, they understood each other – it was not just the Jedi who were in danger and it was not just the warzones that were in turmoil even as the war was apparently ended. Coruscant wasn’t safe anymore, not at all.

“So this is how liberty dies,” Rafa Martez said to herself. “With thunderous applause...”

* * *

Rex heard the decree over the wireless blasting throughout the lower levels; people began to celebrate and fireworks began to beam across the skies. It was officially Empire Day.

79’s was not that far away when the mood of the streets of Coruscant began to change. He could not escape the sounds of cheering and whooping from the majority of citizens. The rest of the transmission he’d heard he tried to block out – no Jedi was a traitor, and there had been no Rebellion, it was all a lie, and by now there were probably not many Jedi left. But deep down Rex could tell Anakin was still among them; General Skywalker would not be gunned down by clone troopers, least of all the clone in command of the rest of the 501st. Appo wouldn’t have killed Anakin, there was no way, and if the clone was still living, he’d be with the rest by now at 79’s. When it came into view, Rex noted a significant difference to the rest of the planet.

The cantina was like a graveyard. It was quiet and dull and lifeless. No one was at the entrance and Rex saw only parked speeders and transports. He parked the chopper-style bike and hopped off slowly, leaving his blasters holstered. Inside there was a mild buzz and pulse of music, and a wave of alcohol still hit him from within – in the place of celebration, there was regret and a dim mood that reminded Rex of the barracks of some of the worst battles he’d been in. The mood that had gripped Anaxes now drowned out the once lively bar as Rex approached the door; he expected it to be empty or even closed down, but the interior was full of clones and most of them in armour.

He grit his teeth as soon as he saw the blue accents of the armour of the majority of troopers lingering around the bar. Their armour looked withered and battle-worn but had no explosive or blaster marks. There were no cuts or slashes from lightsabers and only now Rex realised that his armour looked the worst out of all of them; to his relief, not one clone noticed him as any different. In the back, hanging over the bar he spotted a face and a shoulder he knew.

“Kix...” Rex breathed, approaching his brother. The disgrace on the medic’s face was almost palpable to the former commander; Kix looked visibly pained and as if he had done something abhorrent. “Kix... Are you there, brother?”

“Rex? Is that you?” Kix turned and spoke as if he was hypnotised, his body lax and his eyes cloudy as if possessed. The ale next to him was empty and looked as if it had been for some times; along with the rest of the clones around the bar, it all looked like a mausoleum of white and blue armour in dim neon lighting. “You’re alive, Captain?” Kix asked, hoping that it truly was Rex back from the assumed dead.

He caught Kix as he tripped over himself to get to Rex, not noticing the destroyed state of his old commander’s armour and the lack of his etched helmet. In the dark light, no one could see the dark patch over Rex’s temple also, therefore none would be any the wiser to the lack of his inhibitor chip – still, Rex didn’t wish to linger here.

“I’m here, Kix...”

“Rex... It’s good to see you, Captain... Alive,” Kix slugged as his superior helped him back to his seat. “We, uh... got the order... Did you... Y’know?”

“Yeah, Kix... I got the order too... We took care of it all on the way back from Mandalore...” Rex lied, forcing the non-truth from between his gritted teeth. Too drunk to get the tone from his Captain, there would be no way for Kix or anyone to tell he was lying, or so Rex hoped as he held his brother’s shoulder. “What happened to the 501st, Kix?” Rex needed to know. His limbs were growing numb as he looked around more and took in the sorry state of all of his remaining brothers. Deep down, part of him was happy. Happy that some of his best friends had not had to go through this nightmare – Echo, Tup, Fives, and Ninety-Nine. Looking around, so many of his old troopers were empty shells now, wallowing and shaking their heads in misery so soon after it had all happened.

They looked suicidal.

Kix coughed a little, chuckling in a macabre way to himself as he relived the last night’s events in his mind before retelling them. “Appo was in command, Rex... When the order came in we were commanded to the Temple to suppress the Jedi Rebellion. I felt a... malfunction in my chip, Captain... I didn’t want to it, Rex. I didn’t want to do it...”

“It’s okay, Kix. It’s okay, brother... You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. You were sent through hell in there I bet...”

“There was more than that, Rex... Appo was enjoying it. After Umbara, after General Krell, I think he was enjoying it as we blasted through the Temple. He sacrificed almost a whole squad of us to get the kill shot on Serra Keto while the rest of us assaulted the Archives...” Kix confessed as he reached for someone else’s glass of green fluid and downed it in one gulp. “He wanted to get to Master Cin Drallig, but the General saw to that...”

Rex was disgusted by each and every word but didn’t seem surprised by any of the actions of his other brother. He felt for Kix though and could tell the regret and conflict within him. More than anything Rex wanted to take him away and claw at the chip in his head causing so much pain, but to do so would be inviting death for both of them. He wouldn’t let Kix die like Fives, not ever again. “Kix, is Appo here?” Rex asked, knowing what he had to do now.

“Yeah, Cap... He’s in the can, nursing a pretty messed up head if you wanna talk to him. He probably won’t remember before morning regs... Heh, if we’re even gonna have those tomorrow.”

Rex clapped Kix on the shoulder again, the one emblazoned with the bright red sigil of the medical corps. This was going to be the last time he’d ever see Kix or any of the 501st ever again, that much Rex could tell in the deepest core of his soul. They’d only live half lives and he knew that the transition that was to follow would see the end of his clone siblings; some more of them he’d have to meet again, and talk to – Bly, Bacara, Cody, and Wolffe but for the meantime this was Rex’s final exposure to the legion he’d loved for so long. His heart broke as he held Kix close in his arms. “You’re a good soldier, Kix... And a better man than any other left in this Legion...”

The bathroom was empty, good – Rex could see Appo hunkered over the sink, finishing cleaning up after the mess of vomit he’d expunged with his signiature helmet on the side along with his blaster rifle. Compared to the rest of the brothers in the main bar, he looked the most professional out of all of them. The only semblance of pride left in the 501st existed within Commander Appo, CC-1119.

“Good to see you, Commander,” Appo greeted him as he walked away from his sink to shake his equal brother’s hand. Both were at the rank of Commander now, and Rex could see by the way Appo walked that he had a distinct and bad limp. Looking down he saw scorch marks around his legs that had obviously come from the blade of a lightsaber.

“You’re wounded, soldier...” Rex told him, denying Appo his hand.

Appo chuckled lightly as he shrugged, wiping his hands anyway. “Yeah... Got caught out by an insurgent at the Temple. Had to deal with a senator poking around on the landing platform while we dealt with the order. A kid came behind me and took my legs out from under me but hey, nothing the med droids couldn’t handle,” Appo almost bragged. Rex already wanted to proceed.

“A kid?” Rex repeated, his fists threatening to bust open his palms from the pressure under his slip.

“Some Padawan trying to get away. But the 501st put him down just like the rest. Traitors were no match for us, Rex. You should have seen it; we caught them so off balance they never knew what hit them,” Appo boasted, unaware of Rex’s serious and calculating tone in his drunken buzz. He removed the plating of his plasteel armour from around his centre and pulled down his zipper as he moved into one of the bathroom stalls. He left the door open to still talk to Rex, now his equal in rank and position.

Rex moved to the sink, grabbing Appo’s helmet in one of his hands and his blaster rifle in the other, standing behind the other Clone Commander.

“Who led the 501st into the Temple, Appo?” He asked, making demands with rebellion in his voice and a fiery desire trickling down to his hands. He wanted to act, wanted to make the snap decision that would cement this day at the forefront of his mind forevermore.

“Me, of course. General Skywalker promoted me to Commander after you left for Mandalore...”

“I don’t mean you, _Commander_ , I mean the General... Kix said you were led by a General. Who was it?”

“Oh, the _General_... The Chancellor assigned us to Lord Vader, of course. Who else would we be trusted to?” All of it made Rex boil with contempt and hatred of what he saw before him. Appo was once his brother; on Umbara he was his best man, his most expert fighter and the one to eventually save them all from Pong Krell. Now he was nothing more than a rabid dog, his chip either malfunctioning and making him go mad from the turmoil of Order Sixty-Six, or his true colours painting in the gaps that the order had made for him. “It’s not as if we’d leave his command, Rex... He’s been with us since the start of the war...”

A furious finger pulled the trigger.

Appo’s dead body slumped against the basin and bowl of the toilet and fell slightly down until his face hit the water and the smoke from his back simmered into nothingness. Rex expected a plethora of clones snapped out of drunkenness to come bursting through the door to see what he’d done but nothing came or moved at all. After several seconds, Rex dropped the blaster and grunted hellishly before the dead clone. Appo had once been his brother, but no more.

He tossed the body his helmet back and held his head up high – it wasn’t honourable and it wasn’t right, but Rex didn’t care anymore. There had to be some semblance of justice for what had happened to the Jedi.

“Happy Empire Day, Commander...”

* * *

“No! I’m not leaving Ahsoka! Not this time... She’s going through a lot right now and I would not be a good friend if I left her side now, I don’t care what you say, Rafa!” Trace bellowed at her sister, trying to walk away.

“Trace...” Rafa pleaded, getting closer with the furred sleeves of her arms reaching outward and trying to make her younger sister see the sense she had during the broadcast. “Trace it’s all coming apart. We can’t stay here, you know we can’t. It’s not safe anymore...” She begged more, knowing what was coming without a doubt in her tactile mind. Rafa had made mistakes, plenty of them to count but this was not one of them.

But Trace did not want to hear it; she couldn’t leave Ahsoka alone again, she wouldn’t let herself as long as she was here. She’d carry the Togruta woman to the ends of the galaxy to escape the death that waited for her at the hands of the Grand Army of the Republic, now which had transformed into the First Galactic Empire. The end of the war had come, and with it on the same wind had the end of disorder and the beginning of oppression and forceful compliance. Living low in the levels of Coruscant’s hierarchic society both the Martez sisters knew the rules of life and of the galaxy, but now all of that was to change – if it meant keeping Ahsoka Tano safe and alive, Trace would change with them, even if she had to live without Rafa. Deep down she was already sensing that Rafa would leave without her if they couldn’t reach an agreement, which she wouldn’t budge on, but Trace had the _Silver Angel_ and Rafa didn’t have a ship in place of the freighter.

Rafa took offence, she couldn’t control herself now, the dread of what was coming was scaring her and she gave into her old behaviour. “You won’t survive without me, Trace! They’ll find you and Ahsoka and it’ll be all over! What’re you gonna do for work anyway? You’re not thinking about what’s happening up there!”

“Oh yeah?” Trace bit back. “I’m the one with the ship! And whatever happened to always sticking together, Rafa? Huh? What things are getting bad again and you’re gonna leave me here because I actually want to protect someone I care about?”

“I see some things haven’t changed around here. You two still manage to argue when you’re both wanting the same thing...” Ahsoka said behind Trace, forcing her to turn. Rafa mellowed, something the Togruta really didn’t expect; she worried she would alienate the elder Martez all over again but she could sense within Rafa they had found a deep understanding and agreement. They both wanted to take Trace away from Coruscant. The thing Ahsoka worried about was if Rafa would let her in where she wanted to be – with Trace.

“I thought you were sleeping still...” Trace judged her, taking a maternal stance. Rafa giggled a little.

“Like anyone could sleep with us arguing, Trace... Listen to me, it’s like I’m going loco here.”

Ahsoka walked closer to both of them and instinctively reached to hold Trace’s hand – again to her surprise Rafa said nothing even as she looked when Trace’s fingers curled reactively into the cup of Ahsoka’s palm. If anything the older Martez seemed to approve now, even when the two younger women scooted closer. “Rafa’s right, Trace. You should probably leave Coruscant now,” Ahsoka told the plucky engineer and pilot. Where once Trace had lifted the darkness from her heart, now she made it feel heavy with displeasure and dread that she would never see the pilot again.

Trace couldn’t bear it; she turned to Ahsoka and held the curve of her cheek in a gloved hand, wincing at the thought of leaving her friend and confidante. Ahsoka had been the best thing (and one of the only things) that had landed on her landing pad, and once again they would have to be parted. The galaxy was a cruel mistress and Trace didn’t want to deal with its disgusting sense of poetic irony. Ahsoka had had to leave before, to go to Mandalore and attempt to bring some peace to the galaxy, and now it was Trace having to leave on the force of terrible and authoritarian change. But what would happen to Ahsoka Tano if she remained on Coruscant as the Martez sisters fled to the Outer Rim? Trace couldn’t think of it.

“I can’t leave you here with all the clones, Ahsoka... No,” Trace winced again as she held her love’s face close to her own. Channelling the adorable closeness they had had before, she put her forehead to Ahsoka’s and held her body closer still. Rafa didn’t say a word; she saw now how much Ahsoka meant to Trace.

The closeness of her friend made Ahsoka close her eyes and wish for another existence. Trace was right, it was not fair.

“You have to go, Trace,” Ahsoka told her, however. “You have to take Rafa and the _Silver Angel_ and get out of the Core Systems,” the Togruta began to ask of her; as much as Trace’s wincing lips began to shake. She held Ahsoka’s hands tightly and never wanted to let go, especially when the tears began to come to both of them.

“What’s gonna happen to you? If you stay here, they’ll find you and they’ll kill you...”

“Trace,” Ahsoka stopped her short, holding her hands and keeping their bosoms closer still. She looked at Rafa, silently asking the older Martez for a moment alone with her sisters.

Rafa approved and began to load some tools onto a rolling trolley and moved it to the landing ramp of the _Silver Angel_. It appeared that in the time Ahsoka had been away from the Martez sisters, the elder had become a more active and productive member of the _Nebula_ -class freighter’s miniscule and familial crew. Knowing that Rafa had mellowed out and become all the more tactile and caring, knowing that as Rafa walked away her eyes betrayed the fact that she would never leave Coruscant without her sister and thought the world of Ahsoka for making Trace leave, Tano knew the woman she adored would be in the best hands. Finally Rafa’s hands were those hands. What came next threatened to finish the job the clones aboard the Venator had started.

“There’s a lot I gotta say, Ahsoka...” Trace spoke before Ahsoka could.

“I want to say it too, Trace... But you have to go with Rafa.”

“Not before I tell you what you mean to me,” the mechanic demanded, holding the Togruta’s hands. “You are the best thing to land into my life, Ahsoka... I really mean that; before you crashed on my landing deck on that wreck of a speeder bike I only had Rafa look out for me, she was the only one who cared, and you cared about me instantly... I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get over that fact.”

“Trace, I...”

Ahsoka couldn’t finish. Trace had acted impulsively before anything else could leave her lips and instead only Trace’s deep rouge lips silenced her in a deep and ascendant kiss. It took Ahsoka to another place, away from the Galactic Empire and Coruscant and Order Sixty-Six. It was the ultimate pinnacle of Trace’s doting attention and Ahsoka, surprised to the sensation, blew back meeting Trace’s kiss with her own as the two stood there. She never wanted to leave it, neither did. Their hands clutched each other tightly and each met the other’s body with her own as hands eventually explored. Ahsoka held the ample cheek of Trace’s face, the texture of slender skin refreshing to the touch. Trace had never kissed an alien before, but as she met Ahsoka’s tongue with her own, the Togruta was all she wanted in life – indulgently her fingers graced the tips of her lover’s montrals and Ahsoka’s body jerked to the touch. They were sensitive and more so than any other part of the young woman’s body. Trace refrained further but allowed one of her hands to wander around the crook of her lover’s neck and around the back as they continued; only breaking when Ahsoka felt the wetness of Trace’s tears against her orange cheeks.

“I love you, Trace... But you have to go...”

“Come with us, please, Ahsoka. Don’t stay here,” Trace begged of her sincerely.

But Ahsoka shook her head as she held Trace by the wrists and pulled her hands away from her neck and face. It broke her heart to the core but this had to be the way. “I have to; I can’t leave Rex on his own, Trace.”

“Yes you can, and you have to,” Rex’s voice came from behind the sheet before he walked through it. “There’s nothing here for you now, Ahsoka... They’ll find you and kill you if you stay. There’s nothing to stop them.”

“You don’t know that!” Ahsoka denied, tears coming to her eyes. She couldn’t leave him, not now after everything that had happened. She’d saved him, brought him back from an act that would have killed him inside; without her Rex would never make it, she was sure of it.

“Ahsoka... We both know it’s true.”

She left Trace and ran to him, slamming her fists on his chest in the first display of emotion about the cataclysm he’d seen. Finally, her walls and defences had been softened enough by an afternoon with Trace and now as the sun began to set she was breaking down to the horror that been Order Sixty-Six. Rex had wondered when this would manifest, and now Ahsoka was breaking around him. She punched his chest again, denying him his solitude, but Rex held her wrists and stopped her as she began to softly cry.

“Ahsoka... It’s okay.”

There was a beat as both paused and a wave of terror hit Ahsoka like a transport colliding with another; in Rex’s eyes, she saw the same conviction she’d given him on the graveyard moon. There was no way she could break through to him and she knew it as did he. “What are you going to do?” She whimpered. “I can’t leave you, Rex...”

His eyes grew glassy again as she began to give up on changing his mind. The moment he knew he’d won, he began to cry all over again with her. “Oh you know me, I’ll be fine, kid,” he struggled, his lip trembling as he let go of her wrists and she calmed down into a weak sobbing before him. “They’ll never know what happened to Jesse and the Venator as long as I don’t tell them... As far as they’ll know, you died with them, and I still have my inhibitor chip in my head...”

“You’ll stay here,” Ahsoka wept. “All on your own?”

He took a hard gulp, wanting to have something else to tell her. He wanted to explain that Kix was still alive, or that he would go and find Cody or Commander Wolffe and make sure they were okay after the end of it all. He knew what would come for the clones after their ‘heroic’ effort of putting down the Jedi Knights – only suicide and dismay would linger in the minds of those like Kix, and the rest would find themselves within Sidious’s new Empire. He wanted to make up some lie if it meant Ahsoka wouldn’t feel bad for him, but Rex couldn’t bring himself to do it this time. “Yeah... On my own,” he almost collapsed saying. “But not you... You’ve got these two women to look after, and to look after you, Ahsoka. And when the time is right, I’ll come and find you.”

“You better, Commander Rex,” Ahsoka told him flatly, reaching for his helmet in his hands and putting it over his head. “You’re the best soldier I’ve ever met, Rex... And the best friend.”

He saluted her, the final one he would ever give to someone who deserved it, for sure. “You go,” he told her, letting the tears take over under the mask of the clone helmet so much so that they were audible in his speech more than they had ever been. “And you stay alive out there, Ahsoka Tano... You’re my only hope.”

She reached above him on her tiptoes and pulled his head down by the sides of his helmet to plant a faithful kiss on his forehead. “Goodbye, CT-7567... Rex. May the Force be with you...”

“May the Force be with you, Ahsoka Tano...”


End file.
